Now dial.and U.S. [UNDER-1 4 a. Cf. BEARER sb. 1 c.] One who assists in carrying the coffin at a funeral.
1700. S. Sewall, Diary, 23 March. She is buried…. The underbearers were honest men.
1755. Johnson, Underbearer, in funerals, those that sustain the weight of the body, distinct from those who are bearers of ceremony, and only hold up the pall.
1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq., iii. 35. St. Jerom … informs us, that Bishops were what in modern Language we call Underbearers at her Funeral.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, xl. All th’ under-bearers and pall-bearers as I’n picked for my funeral are i’ this parish and the next to’t.
1885. Century Mag., July, 394/1. The ‘underbearers,’ who carried the coffin,… were provided with plain gloves.
